THE GOLF IS OPTIONAL, THE MIRTH IS REQUIRED! The only blog detailing PSU Track and Field, (not always great!) Golf, Physics topics and great videos at the same time! An eclectic mish-mash (mess) of just about everything imaginable. Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfers have honored PSU Track/XC, Coach Harry Groves and abused golf courses throughout Happy Valley since 2002. Help spread the word!

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"Friendship, physics, and philosophy---this blog has it all."

-Anonymous, 2011.

"I enjoy what you are doing with this blog. It is truly the only reason to have a Facebook account."-Darryl Jones.

"Light yourself on fire and then roll in broken glass to put out the fire!"-from Isaiah Harris's Twitter Feed, explaining how to replicate the feeling after an 800M race."Even pit bulls call him Coach."-Brian Mount, reacting to a visit to Coach Groves from Hunter Backenstose's pit bull, Blanche.

"Keep up the great work."-Nick Scarpello, after winning the 2016 Carlsbad 5K.

"Goodbye to all that. (Politics) I am turning into Jeremiah Johnson, a shunner."-Rob Whiteside, walking the Appalachian Trail.

"I'd rather see you laying in a gutter with your head split open than to see you run like that." -Coach Groves, following a poor showing of 800M runners at a Beaver Stadium Meet, late 70's.

"You do a fantastic job."-Phil Caraher.

"You are amazing at blogging."-Walt Chadwick.

"Best blog out there."-Phil Passen.

"...it tops all sites I've seen with its sense of humor."-George Brose, author of the website Once Upon a Time in the Vest, about our humble blog.

"Great post as usual DFB!"-Darryl Jones.

"You just don't f*** with a f*****."-sage advice from Coach Groves, as told to Tim Backenstose and me, 5/17/14.

"When I was a kid, I saw an illegal dice game in the bathroom at Franklin Field."-Matthew Groves, 2013, remembering the Penn Relays Carnival.

"Don't sit next to Balkey and Artie at a track meet...You'll end up talking about hockey for 3 hours."-Coach Groves to Rebecca Donaghue, 2013.

"The first 45 mile week I ever ran, I ran in the first 3 days at PSU- Thank you very much, Bruce Baden!"-Larry Mangan, 2012.

"If it takes longer than a paragraph, you don't have anything to say anyway."-Coach Grovesat the 2012 Track Alumni Dinner"If you can't get excited for The Penn Relays than damn it, you aint got no soul!"-Coach Groves, as reported by Matt Lincoln at the 2012 Penn Relays.

"Athletics is for education and recreation, nothing else. Winning is important only in that you learn more."-Coach Harry Groves, 5/21/2011 at the Alumni "Run"."... for a brief time, I'm the greatest Track Coach in the world."-Coach Harry Groves, at his Retirement 2006.

"You must do something about the cheating!"-Coach Harry Groves, after golfing two holes with each foursome in 2009.

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Thursday, March 31, 2016

My post about the recent sub-40 second 4 X 100M Relay by PSU, brought a sprinting story out from an unexpected source. Ex-PSU (and ASU) Shot Putter Gary Williky has a unique notch on his belt. He actually took out a top-US runner in a foot race! And won a $100 bet in the process. I'll let him tell the whole story...

Back in 1983, I was lucky enough that Steve
Scott had invited me to a track and field tour. It was called The Pan Am Series. His friend John Walker had recruited him and there
were some great athletes. I was fortunate to travel with Ray Flynn, John Walker, David Moorcroft, Chandra Cheeseborough, Tom Petranoff and James Robinson. It was unbelievable to
so have many great throwers, runners and jumpers. We had the greatest time and
I was so lucky to have set, at the time, the Australian soil record in the Shot
Put of just over 66 feet.But that spring I was in pretty damn good shape and when we got back from the
trip somewhere in March Steve Scott had challenged me to a running race and I
accepted. But what Steve didn't know is I had been training with 40 yard and 60
yards sprints.My friends and I took
this pretty seriously because he was kind of teasing and calling me out. And at Arizona State, there was nobody was
going to call me out!I was a grad assistant /coach and had a big mouth so I trained hard for
it. Ray Wicksel and Steve Tully as race
judges who was there and Arizona State coach Len Miller was there. Actually there was a lot of people there! We
came out of the blocks with a gunshot and I blew him away so hard that when I
finished I stopped at the Finish Line turned around and watched them finish. He turned over the hundred bucks and
took me out to dinner a couple days later and we recently had a chance to talk
about it at Coach Miller’s retirement party at UC Irvine. (You can reach out to
him he'll tell you the same story though I get to blow it up a bit I think.) I think I blew him away then stopped about 10
to 15 yards back but I did turn around I was laughing and giggling and pointing
them out and we hugged.… and that's the Steve Scott story.He
kept his mouth shut after that one. I tease him each time I can.Gary Williky

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Ken Cooper's PSU Track March Madness Pool has gotten pretty interesting. My dog SpottMoskowitz moved up nicely in the last two rounds and is tied for 35th place (out of 149). He has nowhere to go but down now, however, but as long as he gets his "brown things" from a bag for breakfast, he is OK with that.

Things are coming together. Only 3 times since
1979 has a #1 seed not advanced to the Final Four. Thanks to UNC, there
is not a 4th time this year.

Congrats to Emily Oliver (bride of Penn State
steepler Steve Oliver), Buddy Ancharski (dad of Penn State grad Frank
Ancharski), Doug Walter (1989 All-American in 1500) and ESPN’s Scott Van
Pelt who were the 4 with 3 of the Final Four.
Very impressive.

No one had Syracuse in the Great 8 or the Final 4. And remember, only 4 people had them in the Sweet 16.

Congrats to 5 yr old Avery Cooper who locked in her
second DFL title in 3 years. However, her 39 points is better than
average (35) and the highest since 2009 when her dad (me) had 49 for the
DFL title. I am very proud.

The avg. of 1.15 is down slightly from the average over the past 17 years of 1.31 proving this was a tricky Final Four.

Of the Final Four – 88 had Carolina, 61 had Oklahoma, 23 had Villanova and 0 had the Orangemen.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Our Official Physicist and European LiaisonBrian Boyer has sent us another submission sure to garner interest among the rabble. He brings us this pic of an Adidas running shoe rental kiosk in Vienna.

He relates that the kilt-wearingKK O'Brien can testify that it may not be a great idea to "borrow" shoes worn by someone else. The STD he contracted (that's shoe-contracted-disease) from a fellow Nittany Lion was a site to behold!

Monday, March 28, 2016

I have several submissions from members I hope to get to soon, but work (a four-letter word ending in K) is crazy this week. Rest assured, exclusive content is coming soon. And I think the Interns have stayed in Cancun past their allotted time. I'm cutting off their credit just in case.

But I did have a little time yesterday to further test drone functions on the Group's flagship Airship 800U. This time it was the "Follow Me" mode. Works well, at least if you want to watch me walk around at the start area of the County XC course! This will work great for the Alumni "Run" and possibly the actual Mountain View Golf Course at the Coach Groves Golf Tourney. (Sign up now!)

And if that bores you too much, here's a group favorite discussing Karma and other things...

Sunday, March 27, 2016

It is rather exciting to be able to write this post. Penn State Men have a sprinting corps worthy of more than just one post. And I'm sure that I will be bringing more of them later in the season. A great start to the season at the Big Ten/PAC-12 Challenge.

For the first time since 1975, 41 years for the recent practitioners of Common Core Math, the Nittany Lions broke 40 seconds in the 4 X 100M Relay. That goes back to the days of Mike Shine and Mike Sands.

For the men, 39.92 is the first sub-40 second performance since 1975.
The quartet of Chisena, Moffett, Porter and Smith raced their way to the
No. 13 time in the nation thus far this season. The time also ranks as
the No. 7 time in the east region at the moment.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Rob Whiteside, our Roaming Corespondent and Muse, is currently somewhere on the Appalachian Trail. (Much of what is written here on the blog with it all is for his amusement.)
He is three weeks into his Through Hike from Georgia to Maine. This has been planned for quite awhile, and he is accompanied by his Daughter the Elder.

He relates this is the hardest thing he has ever done, and I believe him. He has already experienced 18 degrees on several nights in the Smoky Mountains along with some heavy storms. And the whole time he is accompanied by hikers much younger than he is.

He relates that he is eating like he did at age 15 and has still lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks. His feet and knees hurt, but states you "must embrace the pain and suffering". Even though only 1 in 4 hikers attempting the Through Hike actually makes it, I'm betting on him.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The first real meets start next week, with some team members heading to the San Fran suburbs for the Stanford Invite. (This weekend has the Lions in the PAC-12/Big Ten Challenge in Arizona.) There they can reunite with our Energizer Lion Emeritus Jess Riden in her new position at Stanford. (Blue is her real best color BTW)

We miss you Jess. And your parking info for the Penn Relays.

And just who is this dude jogging on the beach to get ready for the Outdoor Season?

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Baseball season is upon us. And that means hot dogs are back in season too. I always have a hot dog at a Baseball game no matter what else I'm eating. Go to the left sidebar and let me know your favorite hot dog condiments.

Pittsburgh's Original Hot Dog

The best MLB hot dog I have ever had was at Opening Day Yankee Stadium in 1983, when Billy Martin started his last stint as Manager and Joe DiMaggio threw out the first pitch.

The worst hot dog I ever had at a MLB game is a tie between Toronto and Boston. Both were flavorless, limp,lifeless and gray, like biting into a piece of tofu that was nastier than usual. Otherwise, Boston was splendid, the way a Ball Park should be. The Stadium at Toronto is an afront to all that is Holy about the game (see Ken Burns videos and Field of Dreams). Baseball should never be played indoor or even in a stadium that CAN be indoor. The fans at Toronto were equally horrible. A noisy bunch next to me were taunting Raul Ibanez the whole game with racist and filthy chants. I became a fan of his when he hit a towering Center Field home run in the ninth inning to win the game. The blast hit the hotel in Center Field. That's the famous one where the couple were engaging in intimacy on world wide television without realizing their window wasn't one-way!

Recently, my hot dog of choice was threatened with extinction. Jimmy's in Easton PA was undergoing a long-standing battle between the 2 long-time owning families. One of the families actually goes back to the founding in 1908. The place was auctioned off recently and bought outright by one of the families and will continue operation as it always has.

And another dog of choice has been on my mind recently. The Original ("Dirty O") at Pitt has a terrific red hot we have discussed before. It turns out that our Chief Laundry Officer has never had one despite being a burgh native! I will have to take him there for a treat and be sure to make him NOT order a large order of fries in the back!

The Dirty O near University of Pittsburgh
.

Small order of fries with cheese and brown gravy. You must buy these in a separate area.

Monday, March 21, 2016

My dog Spott Moskowitz always makes my picks for the NCAA Basketball pools, just as his predecessor Spot Moskowitz did before him. The original Spot was pretty darn good at it, but the new one just doesn't care as much. He did move up 3 spots in the standings, however.

"Always Nappin"

Spott, doing what he does best.

Ken Cooper's comments on things so-far: (and the top 25)

Did anyone else feel absolutely sick for Northern
Iowa? Man, up by 12 with 31 seconds to go, then up by 5 with 12
seconds. That one will hurt for a long, long time. Same for Stephen F.
Austin and Xavier. Crushing losses, but the epitome
of March Madness.

I find it hilarious folks are talking about the “6
teams from the ACC” in the Sweet 16. A decade ago, those 6 teams
represented ACC (Duke, UNC, Virginia), the Big East (Syracuse, Miami)
and independent (Notre Dame). I just can’t consider
Syracuse an ACC team or Texas A & M an SEC team.

Congrats to me for leading the pool through the
Sweet 16. But, as mentioned in the last results update, I am a dead man
walking with Michigan State as my champ. Go Gonzaga. They are now my
team and only hope.

Nice work to Tyler McCandless, Jay Novak, and
Darryl Jones who hit 13 of the Sweet 16 and made significant jumps in
the standings.

The avg. of 9.53 was above average. 8.99 was the avg. over the past 17 years.

The clear upset pick of the Sweet 16 was Syracuse.
Only 4 people (Courtney Roth, Alyssa Verhoeven, Jason Fraysier and
Hartranft Hall had that nailed). 19 people had Gonzaga into Sweet 16.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Another 25 Alumni Singlets are making their way to Penn State Track and Field Alumni (Golfers), making the total number more than 200 spread out across the globe.

Thanks for this goes to our Le faucon d'orangeMark Hawkins. He does all the legwork, purchasing, arranging for the screenings, shipping etc. He gets paid slightly less than I do, which is nothing. So when you see him at the Alumni Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney, be sure to say "thanks". Be sure to wear yours to the Alumni "Run" on Saturday Morning at the Reunion. And realize that your teammates from years past, and from every other era of PSU Track, are the finest people this world makes.

Bill Malchano previously wore a borrowed Alumni Singlet for a marathon, and I think today may be his first with his very own! Bill is one of the very first Alumni Golfers, lured to State College byFounder ClarkHaley in May of 2002.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

My dog Spott Moskowitz is just about at the mean of everyone's broken brackets in the PSU Track NCAA Basketball Pool. Pitiful, just pitiful. By which I mean the performance of the Michigan State Spartans...

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Although I wasn't there (and I"m not sure why????), a bunch of Sophomores were joined by Junior Tim Backenstose to win the overall race on the hills and dales of the Belmont Plateau course. I'm wondering if they blew me off, or if I blew them off, as I was in very good shape at that time and even ran a 51:11 10-Miler in Millersville then.

And I am in debt to Tim Backenstose for these vintage photos, AND the only picture (that I know of) of me running in a Penn State uniform!!!! This is from the 1979 Penn Relays Marathon won by Tim. That's me leading the other PSU runners. They all ended up beating me!

If anyone knows who the guy is on the right of the AAU XC team photo (Now identified as Syd White by Brian Boyer himself!) AND how to improve on this photo, let me know!

Rich Prann, Doug Kent, skwilli and Al Wolfe.

This was the only race I ever ran in these shoes! Took half of my right foot off.